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What is the role of e-newsletters in your marketing strategy?  They are one the most productive, proven marketing methods for maintaining existing relationships, forging new ones, and capturing new clients.

Here are the top three reasons why e-newsletters work, and why they should be a mainstay within your marketing strategy:

Forging relationships: Statistics show that people are more likely to do business based on a referral from someone they trust. So cultivating relationships with existing customers is key. Reaching out to them through a well-crafted e-newsletter is a low-cost, consistent way to accomplish your goal.

Building trust: Regardless of income level or the state of the economy, virtually all people choose to do business with someone they trust.  For that reason, building trust should be an important part of your marketing approach, and e-newsletters can help build that trust in a consistent, non-intrusive way.

Staying top-of-mind: The third and final reason to make e-newsletters a part of your marketing strategy addresses the reality that on average less than 3 percent of potential customers become buying customers the first time they meet you. However, if you consistently touch them with a non-intrusive e-newsletter that provides them with sound, reliable information they can use, the chances that they will choose you when they are ready buy increase significantly.

If you have not yet begun an e-newsletter to current and potential customers, it might just be time to start. You will be adding a consistent, low-cost relationship-building tactic to your marketing strategy that will help increase your business in good economic times and bad.

It can be equally difficult to decide what mixture of different advertising and marketing media will give you the best response rate.

There are several, such as newsletters and blogs, that are typically very good investments. There several others, such as social media, Google Adwords and even offline advertising that may give you an even greater return.

How do you decide which Internet marketing mediums to invest in, and which to leave for your competition?

Below are three key things to consider when deciding which Internet marketing tactics to use:

The habits of your target market – If your target customer is aged 18 to 35, it is likely they rely heavily on social media to communicate and to get their information. Your advertising and outreach marketing efforts should leverage those habits.

Your product or service category – Much the way the habits of your target market influences your marketing mediums, your product or service category should influence your choices and the way you deliver your message.

Your competition – If your competitors are all targeting the same keywords, you may want to refocus your Internet marketing in an area less crowded. Or find a way to differentiate yourself among all the others.

Home Page Sign-up. Have an area on the home page of your website dedicated solely to enticing people to sign up for something.  Having a regular e-newsletter to send is always a good idea, but you can also ask people to sign up for information on new products, promotions or special offers.  Whatever it is, it needs to be of value to your customers, not just to you.

Ask to Add. When you attend networking events, meetings or trade shows – wherever you are likely to meet potential new customers or are gathering business cards – ask those you meet if you can add them to your mailing list, to send them a newsletter or special offers.

Association Lists. If you are a member of any trade or community organizations, ask if you can have access to their membership list.  Many offer membership lists to members for free; some are available for a fee.

Sign-up after the Sale. If you have an ecommerce site, add a check-off box that encourages customers to sign up for your newsletter or special offers as part of the online checkout process.  If you take telephone orders, provide guidelines for employees to solicit email subscriptions after the sale.

Reciprocal plugs. Find other newsletters that you think your customers would enjoy and ask if they’ll promote your newsletter if you do the same for them.

Buy a List. There are quite a few online resources that offer lists for sale sorted by postal code, demographics, income, and lifestyle interests, buying behaviour, etc.   You can purchase a really targeted list based on your products or services and use it to test a variety of promotions or special offers.

Here’s why:

Connection Sells – Social networks provide the platform for businesses to create an environment of engagement, which eventually leads to commerce.  Today, it’s all about making a connection with potential customers based on the personality of your brand, allowing customers to get to know you in authentic ways that make them want to do business with you.

Authenticity Sells – Defining your personal brand and giving it an authentic voice through your postings and interactions on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc., creates a meaningful bond with customers.  Quick responses to fixing customers’ problems and acts of goodwill can do more to promote your brand positively on social networks than a more traditional – and costly – advertising campaign.

Availability Sells – Having an interactive profile for your brand on all the major social networking sites allows customers to find you where they hang out.  Your accessibility translates into more potential sales opportunities.

In the 21^st century, technology and social media will continue to play an increasingly important role in how we build more direct connections with customers and prospects.

The traditional “A-B-C” sales mantra – Always Be Closing – has evolved to Always Be Connecting. Social media is a powerful connecting force for any business, from local to global, and can significantly boost your bottom line if handled properly.

So how to attract the right sort to your site?  It takes some discipline and a methodical approach.

Audience identification:  You must first identify exactly who your top prospects are for what you’re selling.

Keyword research: Those prospects for your products and services will use certain words to search for what they want.  Knowing what those words are – and using them throughout your site in content and meta tags as well as in PPC campaigns and social media marketing — is the key to driving targeted traffic to your site.   There are several helpful keyword research tools to help you, including a free one at Google Adwords.

Relevant content: Your keyword-rich content should not only attract and engage your site visitors, it should also lead them to a purchase.  Serving up the right information at the right time adds value to the user experience, helps with the decision-making process and leads to sales.  Keeping your content fresh – and this is where a business blog on your site can be most useful – not only keeps visitors engaged and returning, but also boosts your search engine rankings.

Social media:  Engaging prospects in other online venues, in groups or discussion forums, provides assistance in attracting targeted web traffic.  Establishing yourself as an expert presence in these online venues adds professional credibility and provides you with link building opportunities that help your search engine ranking as well.

Remember that the goal of your business website is to generate sales, which can only come from attracting the right target audience.  It’s not just all about the numbers – it’s about the numbers that translate into pounds.

Setting up a Facebook page for business is relatively simple and entails setting up a separate Fan Page that you use to tell potential customers about your business.  Your Fan Page should include:

• An overview of the business (short and sweet)
• Your website address and contact information
• Company news or special offers
• Links to your blog and your other social media sites – blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
• Videos and images that pertain to the business

You can also add an app to your Facebook Fan Page that allows fans to order directly from your own website.

Now you need to attract some fans and that takes what any good marketing program needs – promotion!  Add a link to your website, your blog, your email signature, and anything else you use in your daily business communication to get the word out.  Send an email to your current contacts list letting them know you’re now on Facebook, and give them a reason (like a discount) to become a fan.

Another great thing about Facebook for business is its inexpensive advertising opportunities.  Click on the Advertising link at the bottom of the Facebook page to learn all about creating and targeting your ads.  You decide how much you want to spend, and the Facebook ad app tells you how many impressions and/or clicks you can expect to get for your budget.  You can target potential customers by sex, age, interest, location, etc., and run your ad for any length of time.

These days, your primary audience is not a handful of journalists — it is millions of people with Internet connections and access to search engines and RSS readers.

Therefore, in promoting your business, you should:

• Create releases that will appeal directly to your customers;
• Develop keyword-rich copy and create links in releases that deliver those customers to your site;
• Optimize press release delivery for searching and browsing.

The best way to publish press releases is to simultaneously post a release on your own site and send it to one of the press release distribution services like PRWebUK that will in turn send it to the online news services as well as trade and industry web sites.

PRWebUK has some very useful tips on writing press releases, which you can find here.

Many release distribution services also offer RSS feeds of releases, which they make available to other sites, blogs and individuals.  And online news services such as Google News have RSS feed capabilities as well, allowing people to receive feeds based on keywords and phrases.  So each time your release includes a word or phrase of importance, people will receive it directly.

Have more time than money to spend?  There are also a host of free press release distribution websites that will send your PR out into cyberspace – you can find a good list easily by searching online for “free press release distribution”.

An added benefit to wide online distribution is that each time your release is posted on another site, the inbound link helps to increase the ranking of your site.  This is because the search engines use inbound links as one of the important criteria for their page ranking algorithms.

To ensure you reap the benefits and avoid any financial mishap, there are some guidelines on what you should do before you participate in a trade fair:

Research – attend a trade fair to make sure it targets your specific market before you commit as an exhibitor.

Plan – map out exactly what products or services you will be showcasing and how you want to display them, then meet with a trade fair exhibition company who can show you how to economically display your wares.  Use PR tools to market yourself prior to the show.

Partner – considering partnering with another small company to cut exhibition equipment and space costs.

Design – your space should be designed to create maximum impact, and you can accomplish this by focusing on a single message that will be carried throughout your booth with graphics and exhibition equipment like pop-up displays.

Recruit – have enough people on hand to handle all the business inquiries that will likely be coming your way.  If you are a small business with few employees, recruit relatives and friends – but be sure to brief them fully on your products and services.

Collect – focus your efforts on collecting email addresses, business cards and any other contact information so you are able to leave the show with a way to stay in touch with those you met.  Create a system for follow-up so you don’t lose prospects to inattention.